Tag Archives: thriller

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) Movie Review

October 18, 2015 Alex Brannan

Roger Moore’s second outing as super spy James Bond, The Man With the Golden Gun, opens on a strange foot chase through a fun house filled with wax figures, mirrors, and full sets. With little explanation as to why, an assassin with a terrible shot follows Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), an ex-KGB baddie with three nipples, through this house as Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize) goads both men on over an intercom. Eventually, Scaramanga comes across his signature golden gun, which he uses to shoot his pursuer dead.

Let me recap: a tri-nippled Christopher Lee is our villain. He kills people in his fun house lair with his henchman, Tattoo from Fantasy Island. If it sounds strange, that’s because it is.

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Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Live and Let Die (1973) Movie Review

October 15, 2015 Alex Brannan

At a meeting of the United Nations in New York City, a man is killed mysteriously by a strange noise emitting through his ear-piece translator. In New Orleans, a man is stabbed and tossed into the middle of a funeral parade that just happens to be for him. In the Caribbean, a man tied up by locals is tied up and bitten by a poisonous snake during a ritual. Three men dead, and all three agents of British spy organization MI6.

Enter James Bond (Roger Moore, in his first outing as the franchise spy). MI6 head M (Bernard Lee) and his assistant Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) appear at Bonds doorstep to address the issue of agents dropping like flies. The scene is a comedic game of hide and seek, as Bond steers M away from discovering the naked woman in Bond’s bed. This, and the clever use of a magnetic watch, makes the entrance of Moore as Bond light and fun.

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Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Movie Review

October 13, 2015 Alex Brannan

The cold open to Diamonds Are Forever depicts an angered James Bond (Sean Connery) roughing up a series of people in his search for terrorist supervillain and now arch-nemesis Blofeld (Charles Gray). He finally does find him and, seemingly, kills him. Whatever the case, Connery feels very tired in this scene when it comes to his line delivery.

Following this exacted revenge, Bond is tapped on to impersonate a diamond smuggler. From this job, he encounters a strange cast of characters, including Continue reading Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) Movie Review

October 11, 2015 Alex Brannan

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the first EON-produced James Bond film not to star Sean Connery in its lead role. Instead, we get George Lazenby appearing in the opening scene of the film. He introduces himself to a lovely woman in the normal James Bond way. Then, he fights off violent criminals in the normal James Bond way. Yet, this opening scene and subsequent opening titles sequence are self-aware of this sudden change in casting. Lazenby, his face a sly grin oozing with cheekiness, says, essentially to the audience, “This never happened to the other fella.”

Despite this acknowledgment that the Lazenby Bond isn’t the same as the Connery Bond we have come to know and, at times, love, the following scenes depict Bond as usual. He is awarded a luxury suite at a hotel. He plays baccarat. He drinks Dom Perignon ’57 as he sits down with a beautiful woman. He even stops to dine on caviar after fending off an assailant.

But Lazenby isn’t Connery. Lazenby is Bond to the next level. He is quicker to Continue reading On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) Movie Review →

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Sicario (2015) Movie Review

October 9, 2015 Alex Brannan

During a raid on a Phoenix house that may have possible links to the drug cartel, the FBI stumbles upon an array of dead bodies. The bodies are quickly associated with drug lord Manuel Diaz (Bernardo P. Saracino). Following the discovery, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is recruited to a task force led by the Department of Defense that is enlisted with stopping Diaz.

On a plane to Juarez, where they are to intercept Guillermo (Edgar Arreola), Diaz’s brother, Kate meets the team’s number two Alejandro (Benecio Del Toro). He is terse and stoic, but, as Kate watches him sleep, we see something terrifying within. Continue reading Sicario (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review

September 30, 2015 Alex Brannan

You Only Live Twice, the fifth James Bond film and the fifth to feature Sean Connery in the lead role, opens on space, where a manned, United States spacecraft is hovering over Earth’s orbit. As one of the two astronauts leaves the craft, a larger spacecraft starts barreling toward them. This larger, unidentified spacecraft swallows the U.S. craft whole, leaving the external astronaut for dead in open space and the U.S. government up in arms over their lost craft.

After seeing this international kerfuffle over the missing spacecraft–the U.S. blaming the Soviets and England blaming the Japanese–we meet Bond in Hong Kong, where he is Continue reading You Only Live Twice (1967) Movie Review →

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Everest (2015) Movie Review

September 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

In 1996, a pair of commercial expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest went terribly wrong. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) both lead competing commercial expedition companies. They decide, due to overcrowding of climbers attempting the voyage up on the same day, decide to work together to reach the summit.

The dramatics are set up early on, as we see Continue reading Everest (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

From Russia With Love (1963) Movie Review

September 22, 2015 Alex Brannan

From Russia With Love, the second film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s work to depict MI6 agent James Bond, cold opens on a cat and mouse chase at night. Bond (Sean Connery) steps out of the shadows and moves silently across the grassy landscape, knowing that he is being tailed. The assailant (Robert Shaw), stalks Bond, then retreats to the cover of a nearby bush to wait for the perfect moment to strike. Surprisingly, he gets that perfect moment. Bond goes down, choked by wire at the hands of the assassin. The super spy is bested.

Or is he.

Lights go up, and an army of men are revealed. The event was a training exercise and Bond: a grunt in a Connery mask. Someone is out to get Bond. Someone very powerful.

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Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Dr. No (1962) Movie Review

September 21, 2015 Alex Brannan

1962’s Dr. No is the first adaptation of Ian Fleming’s work, bringing to the screen his iconic super spy character James Bond. The first time we see Bond (Sean Connery) in this film, the stage is already set for Connery to set the precedent for how the spy is meant to look and act on screen. He puffs casually at a cigarette as he gambles and flirts with his female competitor (Eunice Gayson). His look is suave, his mannerisms subtle and laid back. Connery immediately embodies Fleming’s sharp-witted and womanizing Bond.

The film is littered with retrospective moments in which we can see precedents being set for the franchise. The iconic score blares in right off the bat, as we stare down the barrel of a gun. This theme repeats itself many times throughout the film. Bond and M (Bernard Lee) discuss Continue reading Dr. No (1962) Movie Review →

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The Visit (2015) Movie Review

September 9, 2015 Alex Brannan

A divorced mother of two (Kathryn Hahn) hasn’t seen or talked to her parents in 15 years. After all this time, they contact her online asking to see their grandchildren (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould), whom they have never met. She reluctantly agrees on her children’s insistence.

Her children are a cute sibling pair, natural and appropriately childish. Tyler is charismatic and naive, free style rapping with a train conductor and purporting to “sext” with classmates. He desperately wants to live up to a masculine stereotype that he does not truly embody.

Becca is verbose and dramatic with her words as she narrates her way through exposition like a quick knife-stroke through butter. She has recently armed herself with cameras, hoping to tape their week-long visit in a style as close to a professional documentary as she can muster.

Shymalan channels an inexperienced auteur in Becca. Early interactions are light and bubbly as she sets the scene for her “documentary.” It also serves a meta purpose in its intended humor. She explains that with a camera you need to build tension and make people want to imagine what is lingering just beyond the frame. It sounds very much like Shymalan is Continue reading The Visit (2015) Movie Review →